


Casket

by AnnieVH



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Death, Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-08
Updated: 2014-12-08
Packaged: 2018-02-28 15:11:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2737247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnieVH/pseuds/AnnieVH
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumpel brings Neal back to life, but death still haunts Neal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Casket

When Neal first asked him “What do you remember of death?” he didn’t think much of it.

“I don’t remember a thing,” he answered, voice so neutral he might as well be talking about the weather.

Neal looked at him, then everywhere else, as if voicing that question had been a terrible mistake. It made Rumpel feel guilty for dismissing the issue so easily. It had taken Neal fifteen minutes of small talk to get to that point, and now he had killed the conversation inadvertently. His answer, however, had been truthful.

Rumpel tried to fix his mistake by asking, “Why?”

Neal shook his head, but didn’t raise his eyes, nor move.

Rumpel pushed gently, “Why do you want to know?”

Finally, Neal snapped his head up and demanded, “You can’t just  _not_ remember death.”

“I don’t,” Rumpel shrugged. “I remember dying. I remember waking up from that vault. Between here and there, nothing.”

“But-” he started, and then went quiet. How to argue with that? “But you are different from  _me_.”

“How so?”

“You are the Dark One.”

Rumpel frowned. “What is it that you really want to ask know, Baelfire?”

Neal took a step closer and lowered his voice. They were alone in the back of the shop, but still he seemed to not want to take any chances. “Where was I?”

“Bae,” Rumpel said, fatherly, “there are many questions that we are not allowed to know the answer to. I don’t remember death any more than you do because that is the way things work.”

“But you brought me back from somewhere,” Neal insisted.

Rumpel tried speaking, but then stopped. Slumped. “Son, what do you want me to tell you?”

Neal paced the room. His hands, shoved deeply into his pockets, came out to rub his face. They were trembling. He breathed, trying to get a hold of himself.

“Was I  _in_  there all this time?”

“In there where, Bae?” Rumpel asked, cautious.

“Did I spend two years and a half years in a coffin-”

Rumpel interrupted, “Bae, no. No, of course not.” He came around the desk to hold him, but Neal stepped back. It wasn’t a hostile gesture, more like a defensive one.

When he first came back, Rumpel had held him so tight Neal had to tap him on the shoulder several times, gasping for air. His father didn’t care. Just pulled him even closer and sobbed and apologized and kissed his face over and over again because he had been given a third chance. His boy was alive and well and looking very much confused on Mary Margaret’s bed. He had quietly thrown a questioning look to Emma, but she just smiled behind a veil of tears and shrugged, as if to say the old man deserved a little moment of discomposure.

At that moment, Neal didn’t know what had happened. All he knew was that he had supposedly died in the forest in Emma’s arms, but was now waking up the next day as if nothing had happened. Neal thought that maybe he had just fallen asleep. That he had been saved. That Papa was being dramatic – as always.

When they told him the truth was when he started withdrawing from the family. It was such a slow process that Rumpel didn’t realize how serious it was until that very moment, when Neal took a step back and raised his arms, indicating a hug would not be a source a comfort. If anything, it could drive him over the edge.

“What was in that coffin, it wasn’t you,” Rumpel said, carefully. “It was… something else.”

“Is,” Neal corrected. “What  _is_  in that coffin.”

His father didn’t know what to say. He had dissolved his tombstone into sand and blown the grains into the wind as soon as Neal looked healthy and strong enough to make it. Whatever was in the ground, he didn’t want to see it. He didn’t want to acknowledge it.

Neal panted. “Sometimes I’m not sure this body is real.”

Careful not to startle him, Rumpel reached for his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Feels real enough to me.”

Neal didn’t look convinced.

Rumpel insisted, “It’s just been a month. You need to give yourself more time. Perhaps go talk to Dr. Hopper?”

Neal didn’t say a word.

“Bae, if you want, I can make you forget it. Give you new memories of the last two years.”

Now his eyes were fixed on his father. But he didn’t even seem to consider it. “Why do you always think you can fix everything with magic? It’s like you don’t learn.”

Though mention of magic would usually make him mad, this time Rumpel could see all he wanted was an excuse to lash out and leave.

Rumpel called his name, but Neal didn’t turn back.


End file.
